10 suited themselves to their position, and sat all in a row. The sun shone without and warmed the shell, and the rain made it clear and transparent; it was mild and agreeable in broad daylight, and dark at night, as it generally is; and 15 the peas as they sat there grew bigger and bigger, and more thoughtful, for they felt there must be something for them to do.

"Are we to sit here forever? Shall we not become hard by sitting here so long? It seems to 20 me there must be something outside, and I feel sure of it," said one.

And, as weeks passed by, the peas became yellow, and the shell became yellow.

"All the world is turning yellow, I suppose," and perhaps they were right.

said they,

Suddenly they felt a pull at the shell; it was 5 torn off, and held in human hands, then slipped into the pocket of a jacket in company with other full pods.

"Now we shall soon be opened," said one, — just what they all wanted. "I should like to 10 know which one of us will travel farthest," said the smallest of the five. "We shall soon see

now."

"What is to happen will happen," said the largest pea.

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Crack," went the shell as it burst, and the five peas rolled out into the bright sunshine. There they lay in a child's hand. A little boy was holding them tightly, and said they were fine peas for his pea shooter. And immediately he 20 put one in and shot it out.

"Now I am flying out into the wide world; catch me if you can," said he, and he was gone in

a moment.

10

"I intend to fly straight to the sun; that is a shell that lets itself be seen, and it will suit me exactly," said the second; and away he went.

"We shall go to sleep wherever we find our6 selves; we shall still be rolling onwards," said the two next; and they did certainly fall on the floor, and roll about before they got into the pea shooter; but they were put in for all that. "We shall go farther than the others," said they.

"What is to happen will happen," exclaimed the last, as he was shot out of the pea shooter; and as he spoke he flew up under an old board under a garret window, and fell into a little crack which was almost filled up with moss and fine 15 earth. The moss closed itself round him, and there he lay, a captive indeed, but not unnoticed by God.

20

"What is to happen will happen," said he to himself.

Within the little garret lived a poor woman, who went out to clean stoves, chop wood into small pieces, and perform such like hard work. Yet she remained always poor, and at home in the garret lay her only daughter, not quite grown

up, and very delicate and weak. For a whole year she had kept her bed, and it seemed as if she could neither live nor die.

"She is going to her little sister," said the woman; "I had but the two children, and it was 5 not an easy thing to support both of them; but the good God helped me in my work, and took one of them to Himself and provided for her. Now I would gladly keep the other that was left to me, but I suppose they are not to be separated, 10 and my sick girl will very soon go to her sister above." But the sick girl still remained where she was; quietly and patiently she lay all the day long, while her mother was away from home at her work.

15

Spring came, and one morning early the sun shone brightly through the little window, and threw his rays over the floor of the room. Just as the mother was going to her work, the sick girl fixed her gaze on the lowest pane of the win- 20 dow. "Mother," she exclaimed, "what can that peeps in at the window ?

little green thing be that

It is moving in the wind."

The mother stepped to the window and half

opened it. "Oh!" she said, “there is really a little pea which has taken root and is putting out its green leaves. How could it have gotten into this crack? Well, now, here is a little garden for 5 you to amuse yourself with." So the bed of the

sick girl was drawn nearer to the window, that she might see the budding plant; and the mother went out to her work.

“Mother, I believe I shall get well,” said the 10 sick child, in the evening; “the sun has shone in so brightly and warmly to-day, and the little pea is doing so well; I shall get on better too, and go out into the warm sunshine again.”

“God grant it!” said the mother; but she did 15 not believe it would be so. But she propped up with a little stick the green plant which had given her child such pleasant hopes of life, so that it might not be broken by the winds; she tied the piece of string to the window sill and to the upper 20 part of the frame, so that the pea tendrils might twine round it when it shot up. And it did shoot up, indeed it might easily be seen to grow from day to day.

"Now, really, here is a flower coming,” said the